Terrorist bombing in St. Petersburg, Russia kills at least 10 people.

Damage to one of the subway cars. BBC/EVN.

A terrorist bombing targeting underground stations in St Petersburg, Russia has killed at least 10 people and wounded 50 more. BBC. The blasts hit between the Sennaya Ploschad and Tekhnologichesky Institut stations. Russian president Vladimir Putin was in the city but has now left. Other metro stations have stepped up secuirty in response to the attack. 

Live Updates:

BBC. 

RT.

Mirror (UK)

My Comment:

This is a breaking news story so there isn't a whole lot of information out there. We do know that this bombing could have been worse. Russian security forces have reportedly found a 2rd bomb that did not detonate for some reason. If it had, more people could have died. Since I expect the death toll to increase anyways, that would have made this terror attack even worse than it is already. Of course, these initial reports are often wrong and/or confused so it's possible that it is a false report anyways. We already know that the initial reports of two separate stations being hit were wrong as the bombing occurred in between them. 

I won't speculate too much on who could be responsible. Russia has had problems with Islamic terrorism in the past and some of the attacks they have suffered have been horrifying. In those case, the terrorists were often Chechen separatists, but it is far too early to blame anyone for this attack. It is also possible that this wasn't related to Islamic terrorism at all. I am extremely skeptical, but I would be remiss to not mention that relations between Russia and Ukraine are pretty terrible as well. Terrorism isn't really that common in that conflict though, at least not when it comes to targeting civilians like this. Still, if I had to bet, it would be on ISIS or some other Islamic terror group. After all, Russia is deeply involved in the war in Syria and this could be an attack in response to the Russians actions there. Not like that justifies anything, mind you...  

I will say that the first thing I thought of when I saw the headlines this morning is that this attack was similar to the bombing in Brussels. Obviously, that attack involved an attack on an airport as well, but the subway bombing was similar. That bombing was conducted by ISIS and it wouldn't be too surprising if someone had used the same techniques. The attack certainly feels similar to the Brussels bombing,

Russia doesn't mess around when it comes to terrorism. If this does turn out to be a foreign terror attack, expect the Russians to respond with extreme prejudice. Russia has a long history of brutally attacking people responsible for attacking them in terror attacks. If there are members of this cell that are still alive, there is a good chance that they won't be for much longer. And I wouldn't be surprised if Russia launches some more strikes in Syria if this does turn out to be an ISIS attack. 

I am wondering how western media will respond to this attack. The past few months they have been on a hysterical anti-Russian crusade and I worry that will continue even after this terror attack. After all, the media hates Donald Trump and there are many people with a vested interest in keeping relations between the United States and Russia bad. I fear that not even the deaths of 10 innocent people could quell the media's insanity on the "Russian interference" conspiracy theory. 

I'm not mainstream media though and I completely condemn this attack and whoever was responsible for it. Though Russia obviously has problems, that doesn't mean that they deserve these kinds of attacks. Nobody does And they have lost so many people to terrorism, though that hardly ever gets mentioned here in the West. I remember the Belsan school massacre and the 200+ people that were murdered by ISIS when they blew up an airliner traveling from Egypt to, coincidentally  enough, St. Petersburg, even if nobody else wants to mention those attacks. Russia has suffered from radical terrorism as much as anyone else and I do hope that the person or people responsible for this attack are brought to justice, one way or another.